Sex, Deception, Death... And A Pig

details of the account remain covered until revealed In the late 1970s and early 1980s she had a difficult time. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now She became a committed environmental and animal-rights activist and wanted to study law. In the summer of 1985 she and Stephen moved to an 850-acre farm outside Verdigre, Nebraska, owned by her mother. That summer they bought a piglet, Arthur, whom Fran doted on. She began full-time study at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1988 and did well, keeping a duplex in Lincoln during term time and spending holidays at the farm. Stephen joined the Navy in 1987.

Soon after the move, Dean Frank, a farmhand from Atkinson, began doing odd jobs on the farm. He was paid by Fran's mother, and Fran also paid him in kind, typing letters and doing his mending, to look after Arthur while she was away. He sometimes slept in an upstairs spare room. Fran and Frank were about the same age, and the arrangement continued for six years. Fran later described him as a perfect gentleman throughout that time.

Things changed in June 1991. On June 16 Fran spent the night at Frank's trailer in Atkinson. According to her, he suggested in a businesslike way that they marry and that he run the farm organically; she said she was interested in farming but not in marriage or sex with him. On June 25 she wrote to him about the cost of a sexual health certificate from the university health centre. On July 3 or 4 Frank visited her in Lincoln and stayed until July 9. They then went to a physician in Verdigre for HIV and syphilis tests, which came back negative, and from July 12 to 15 Fran stayed at Frank's trailer. On July 16 she invited him to Chicago for her son's basic-training graduation. She also mentioned a California sex clinic and what she called selfish sex, and promised to tell him about it.

On July 22 Frank became angry when she asked to meet his ex-wife and children, and she wrote two versions of a letter to him, one left at his trailer and one at her farmhouse. details of the account remain covered until revealed Telephone records show two long calls on July 23. On July 24 she wrote to her son about a fatal fight with Frank, said Frank was trying to romance her for her money and the farm, and worried that he might harm her pig. On July 25 she bought .357 shells at Jed Licka's Hardware Hank in Verdigre and asked about a brace to hold a 2x4 across a door; a welder made the brackets, and the brace was in place on the day of the killing. On July 28 they visited a state park together, and Frank gave her $300 for the Chicago trip. She said he was pushy about marriage, that she refused him, and that he made a remark like if I can't have you, nobody else will.

She flew to Chicago on August 1 and returned on August 4, telephoning Frank's ex-wife Betty on the way home to say they were engaged and to discuss visitation. Betty hung up. On August 5 she met Dolores Fisher, Frank's former girlfriend, in Atkinson, and that night called Frank a dirty name and hung up on him. On August 6 she exchanged a box of .357 Maximum shells for .357 Magnum cartridges. On August 7 Frank wrote to her. On August 8 she wrote to Fisher. On August 10 she and Frank spoke on the phone for 213 minutes. On August 11 Frank fixed her pig's irrigation pipe, moved a refrigerator and signed a note giving her all his property stored on the farm, including a 1973 Ford pickup. On August 12 she wrote to her son again. On August 13 she wrote to Betty Frank saying the engagement was off and asking how violent Frank was.

On Saturday, August 17, a neighbour heard target practice from her yard, apparently with two different calibres. That evening Frank called at 7.06 and they spoke for 51 minutes; he called again late that night. Fran telephoned the Knox County Sheriff's Office and told Chief Investigator Don Henry that Frank had threatened to send the Gatz boys to her place. At 1.05 a.m. on August 18 Frank called and they spoke for 13 minutes; at 7.08 a.m. he called again, and she said he repeated threats to slit her throat, shoot her truck, burn her house and butcher her pig. She did not believe he was an immediate threat because he sounded drunk and she thought he was two hours away.

At 12.22 p.m. she called Deputy Waterman, called Frank a dangerous psycho and was told to apply for a restraining order on Monday. At 3.12 p.m. Frank called and they spoke for 32 minutes. Between 12.30 and 2 p.m. he had been at Dolores Fisher's house. Two high-school boys hitting golf balls nearby heard two or three shots between 5.20 and 5.30 p.m., shortly after one saw a car turn into Fran's driveway; they heard no more shots until they stopped at six. Fran called the sheriff at 5.35 p.m. to say she had shot a man who came into her house and was going to kill her. Deputies arrived at 6.25 p.m. and found Frank on the floor of the computer room in a pool of blood, with the words self-defense written in blood beside his head, a note in an open suitcase reading I love Fran, self defense and Dean, and a bag of lunch meat beneath him. He was still alive and conscious and said, just leave me alone and let me die. He had no discernible blood pressure by 6.30 and was pronounced dead at 7 p.m. Fran said Frank had lunged at her and that she fired all six rounds from a Colt Python .357, then reloaded while calling the sheriff; she did not know how many times she hit him. An autopsy found six wounds from three bullets: one entering the left abdomen and exiting the back, one entering the right hip, and one entering the right back, passing through the liver and lung, exiting the chest and striking the elbow. The pathologist, Dr Brad Randall, said the liver wound would have killed him within 10 to 15 minutes and that the wounds were not all inflicted at once. Three bullet holes in the dining-room floor had been fired from in front of the storage-room door, not from the computer desk. The sheriff said she had no blood on her hands; she had asked to be tested for blood so that no one would think she wrote the note.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now The prosecution pointed to her letters, in which she called Frank a fool, a sucker, a houseboy and a drowning rat, boasted of her Mensa membership, described a fatal fight, and wrote that she had bought new .357 shells and was going to practise. The ashtray of cigarette butts in the storage room and the bullet trajectories suggested she had waited for him. Frank's blood alcohol was .000. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it